MMCC3406 Assessment 1: Platform Walkthrough of Uber Social Media

This assignment provides a detailed platform walkthrough of Uber's social media presence, focusing on how the platform deploys visuality to communicate its ideologies to users. The walkthrough examines the Uber app's safety features, including emergency assistance, GPS tracking, and customer support, to assess their reliability and user experience. The analysis reveals the company's emphasis on safety, highlighting features such as the safety toolkit and medical insurance for both drivers and riders. The study concludes that Uber strategically positions itself in the global market by prioritizing safety and providing a user-friendly experience. The essay also explores the company's branding and its ability to stand out from competitors through its comprehensive safety measures. The assignment also provides a detailed overview of the safety features as promised by the company.

Running head: PLATFORM WALKTHROUGH OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UBER COMPANY
Platform Walkthrough of Social Media for Uber Company
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PLATFORM WALKTHROUGH OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UBER COMPANY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Walkthrough..........................................................................................................................3
2.2 Analysis.................................................................................................................................6
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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1. Introduction
Uber is considered as a major technological platform in the recent times owing to their
broad customer base and their spread in different parts of the world. The prime popularity gained
by the platform is based on the fact that smartphones act as the primary medium to form the
bridge between riders and drivers (Earn Money by Driving or Get a Ride Now | Uber United
States, 2020). In the present times, with a broad number of customer base, the company would
plan to adopt different innovative features to be integrated within their platform to bring in the
best output and bring in customer satisfaction.
In relation to the aspect of strengthening a strong bond with their customers, it can be
discussed that Uber has formed a major form of brand positioning in the global market. In order
to emerge in the global market and draw the attention of customers, the company ensures that
their advertisement strategies are highly appropriate such that customers would be greatly
affected and make use of their platform widely.
(Figure 1: Advertisement within the Uber Platform)

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(Source: Earn Money by Driving or Get a Ride Now | Uber United States, 2020)
The above figure describes the ways in which Uber advertises and places their brand
amongst the global competitors. They thus promote their company based on advertising
regarding promotional offers so that customer would get majorly attracted towards them.
In the following parts of the discussion, the prime focus would be placed on the safety,
which can be termed as an ideological concept of interest. The factor of safety is considered as
highly crucial since Uber values their customers and would primarily put safety as the primary
option during their ride.
2. Discussion
2.1 Walkthrough
In the following discussion, the ideological concept that has been chosen is based on thee
safety features that are supported within the ride hailing cab platform. Uber considers that riders
should have the prime option of moving safely through their ride and thus ensure that the cab in
which they travel can be trusted by customers. Thus, setting of new safety standards and
changing them on a timely basis has been their utmost priority over the years.
The objective of conducting the walkthrough is based on understanding the reliability of
the Uber application in terms of safety (Basu, 2017). The certain metrics could be segregated
under the categories of drivers and riders. These are discussed as:
1. Emergency Assistance – Riders would be able to call different local emergency
services from their mobile application at any point of time during their ride (Posen, 2015).

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2. 24/7 Customer Support – In order to report an incident or any purpose related to their
trip, customers would be able to access the 24/7 call support assistance within their application.
3. Share My Trip – Riders have the privilege for sharing their trip details with their
family and friends. Thus they can add them under Trusted Contacts and thus would share their
trip details.
4. Safety Centre – Uber provides an in-app Safety Centre, which riders can directly
access and understand the specific guidelines presented there.
5. Real-time GPS Tracking – Every Uber is tracked with real-time GPS system so that
the riders would be able to follow their ride and understand the location in which they would be
heading towards (Kohli & Chadha, 2019).
6. Phone Number Anonymization – Messages and calls made through the application
does not reveal the identity of the rider and hence the personal details of both parties remain
protected.
7. Driver Profile – Riders can check the personal profile of their riders before
commencing their ride (Chen, Mislove & Wilson, 2015). The star ratings displayed after the
driver name helps the rider understand regarding the popularity of the driver.
8. Ride Check - With the use of GPS data and sensors, this feature would help in
detecting whether any trip would have an unexpected stop.
9. Alerts for Speed Limit – This feature is useful for drivers to understand that they
should not drive the vehicle beyond a certain speed limit.

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10. Vehicle Inspection – Uber conducts an annual inspection in order to ensure that the
driver has a safe license to drive.
(Figure 2: Safety features within the Uber Platform)
(Source: Rider safety - How safe is Uber in South Africa? | Uber, 2020)
The above discussion within the walkthrough over the safety features within the Uber
application helps in understanding regarding the particular kind of technological support and
features supported within the application (Giddy, 2020). During the walkthrough over the safety
features at Uber, a proper analysis had been made within the Uber mobile application to
understand the details of the safety and security features.
During the assessment over the walkthrough process, it can be discussed that the
walkthrough would be considered as success. The different metrics had helped in understanding
the brief of the technological features supported within the application (Calo & Rosenblat,

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2017).. However, in consideration of re-doing the experiment, some aspects or metrics could be
changed based on the improvements or updates as updated within the application.
2.2 Analysis
During conducting the walkthrough process, it can be understand the understanding of
the safety features helped in determining the efficiency of business operations within Uber. The
ideological issues that could be discussed was based on the safety features, which were being
provided by the company (Brazil & Kirk, 2016). However, during the discovery within the
walkthrough, it can be discussed that the company helps in providing their users with the world-
class safety feature, which is distinguishable from their other competitors.
During the performing of the walkthrough, the two primary findings that would help in
confirming over the initial thoughts within the previous area of discussion are:
1. From the conducted walkthrough over the safety feature at the Uber application, I
noticed that users are supported with a safety toolkit.
(Figure 3: The Safety Toolkit option at Uber)

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(Source: Rider safety - How safe is Uber in South Africa? | Uber, 2020)
This is the sign of the Safety Toolkit features supported within the platform. Although I
have seen that many people do not make use of this feature, but this could be considered as an
extremely useful feature for all riders (Rider safety - How safe is Uber in South Africa? | Uber,
2020). During the initial discussion, there was a major discussion over the different safety
features supported within the application. In the above figure, there are three major options that
are supported within the toolkit, which would prove to be vital when riders would ride. These are
– safety centre, GPS tracking and emergency call option.
2. Another important feature that was noticed by me was that Uber the facility of medical
insurance for both drivers and riders. The company has merged with the top leading auto
insurance and medical insurance service providers. This feature is also integrated within the Uber
application (Partner Injury Protection from Chubb Insurance, 2020). Uber helps in maintaining
an auto insurance in serious cases of accidents, which includes a liability insurance amount of $1
million. This facility would be provider on the behalf of driver partners whenever they would
accept a ride and the rider would be travelling within.
During the observation over the safety features, which are covered under the Uber
application, it could be discussed that Uber welcomes all kind of customers from diverse and
cultural backgrounds (Huang, Majid & Daku, 2019). The application helps every user who
would love to travel from one part of the city to another with an ease riding experience. Riders
can travel with the help of the application without the need of worrying about their safety since
Uber handles all kind of safety measures that might be required by the rider when they choose
and trust the application. The app also supports a feedback mechanism through which both

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drivers and riders would be able to provide a great feedback to each other (Young & Farber,
2019). Hence, as described within the branding of the company, the above observations help in
understanding that the company does have the capability to stand apart from their rival
competitors in terms of all features provided to customers.
3. Conclusion
Based on the discussion and understanding, it could be concluded that the walkthrough
had majorly helped in gaining a detailed overview over the safety features as promised by the
company. The initial parts of the discussion concentrates on developing the concept of safety as
defined by Uber. The next part of the walkthrough process helps in understanding the suite of
safety features that have been accommodated within the platform. Uber does support a broad
suite of safety features and options that could be guided for the user whenever they would be in a
need of choosing safety as an option. The company brings in innovative safety features that
would assist the user to take safety measures in case they would require. During the analysis of
the walkthrough, it can be seen that the different features have been discussed from a technical
point of view. The Uber application had been chosen to understand the particular work over the
safety features as discussed within the previous section. The report also helps in understanding
whether the safety features could help the brand in positioning them in the global marketplace.
Thus, from the understanding over the demonstration of the security features, it can be concluded
that the company would be able to strategize and position themselves as a major brand in the
global marketplace.

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References
Basu, B. (2017). UBER: Redefining Transportation. International Journal, 5(3).
Brazil, N., & Kirk, D. S. (2016). Uber and metropolitan traffic fatalities in the United
States. American journal of epidemiology, 184(3), 192-198.
Calo, R., & Rosenblat, A. (2017). The taking economy: Uber, information, and power. Colum. L.
Rev., 117, 1623.
Chen, L., Mislove, A., & Wilson, C. (2015, October). Peeking beneath the hood of uber.
In Proceedings of the 2015 internet measurement conference (pp. 495-508).
Earn Money by Driving or Get a Ride Now | Uber United States. (2020). Retrieved 30 March
2020, from https://www.uber.com/in/en/
Giddy, J. K. (2020). Travel Patterns of Uber Users in South Africa. In New Directions in South
African Tourism Geographies (pp. 113-127). Springer, Cham.
Huang, J. Y., Majid, F., & Daku, M. (2019). Estimating effects of Uber ride-sharing service on
road traffic-related deaths in South Africa: a quasi-experimental study. J Epidemiol
Community Health, 73(3), 263-271.
Kohli, P., & Chadha, A. (2019, March). Enabling pedestrian safety using computer vision
techniques: A case study of the 2018 uber inc. self-driving car crash. In Future of
Information and Communication Conference (pp. 261-279). Springer, Cham.
Partner Injury Protection from Chubb Insurance. (2020). Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
https://www.uber.com/za/en/drive/insurance/

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Posen, H. A. (2015). Ridesharing in the sharing economy: Should regulators impose Uber
regulations on Uber. Iowa L. Rev., 101, 405.
Rider safety - How safe is Uber in South Africa? | Uber. (2020). Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
https://www.uber.com/za/en/ride/safety/
Young, M., & Farber, S. (2019). The who, why, and when of Uber and other ride-hailing trips:
An examination of a large sample household travel survey. Transportation Research Part
A: Policy and Practice, 119, 383-392.